Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-02-17
ARE THE PLANETS PEOPLED?
AT the Present Time there is Not One on Which
Man Could Live for Single Hour-Some In
genious Speeulations.
St. Louis Critic.

of the whole heavens are unrolled before
the eve of the observer. Each of the
thousands of stars is blazing sun, with
it's probable family of attendant planets.
Brightest of them is Sirius. The recent
researches of astronomers have shown
that this star is one million times as far
from the earth as the sun, which itself is
separated from US by mighty abyss of
92,700000 miles.
When we reflect this distance enormous
as it appears is but a span in compari-
son with the almost infinite distances
which separate us from other stars, and
that beyond these are others stretching
away at intervals which to us appear like
different orders of infnities, we gain
faint idea of the imm ensity OF the uni
verse. Looking out from our little globe
into these infinite de pths one often won
ders whether, in all the vast numbers of
worlds with which space teens there IS
one from which the eye of an Intelligent
being gazes IN wondering admiration up
on these same glorious consultations
which night after night spread their
beauties before the eyes of the earth's
chill 1ren. For all we know, or may ever
know, no other eyes than ours have ever
caught the tremulOGs waves of light
which ever flow from out these distant
suns. It may be that these shining
spheres pursue their orbits year after
year, age after ege, and never voice of
man or living creature is heard IN all
their depths. The idea Expresses US
with the isolation of man.
In the reaction from such thoughts,
men have gone to the other extreme, and,
giving tree rein to their imaginations
have peOpled not only the planets of our
A.
creatures of their own invention. Many
have even clothed these fictitious inhabit-
ants Of other spheres with human forms
and characteristics. Even SO great an
astronomer as Sir William Herschel at
one time held that the sun might have
human inhabitants, and kindly invented
special layer of clouds to protect them
from the glowing exterior. The period
ic comets have been held by many to be
reserved for the future torment of the
wicked.
The special adaptability of these
bodies to this purpose, will be at once ad
mitted when it is remembered that the
comet in the course of it's eccentric or
bit sweeps in very near the sun, at which
time its unfortunate inhabitants would
be subjected to the most awful scorching.
Scarcely the sufferers accustom them
selves to this torrid climate when the
comet bears them out beyond the orbit of
Neptune, where they are subjected TO an
intensity of cold which we have no CON
ception. Thus alternately roasting and
freezing the slow ages of eternity wear
away. From the earliest study of astron-
omy the possibility of life in other worlds
has been matter of constant spscula-
lation. The literature of the subject as
l,ut no Ir1lof
ton of the writer's has played SO promi
nent part, and facts have been SO inex-
tricably interviewer with speculation,
that it is difficult for the non scientific
reader to know where one ceases and the
other begins.
In their physical characteristics the
major planets of our suns system may
be roughly divided into two classes.
The four great outer planets-Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, and Nsptune-are still in
the condition of highly heated bodies.
They have an average density of only
Liz compared to water, Saturn being the
only one which departs widely from the
mean, it's density being only 0,75 of that
of water.
The telescope shows the surface of
Jupiter to be in a state of continual
change. Heated vapors rise from the in
terror, cool, and fall back in the boiling
mass below. The most frightful storms
occur IN this heated envelope, com pared
to which our terrestrial tornadoss are
but trifiing. Jupiter is in fact a sort of
secondary sun.
Saturn is apparently somewhat further
advanced in the cooling process and its
surface Is more quiet than that of Jupiter
but all the evidence points 10 the con-
conclusion that no solid substance exists
upon it. large part of its equatorial
region is shrouded for years in success
ion in the shadow of its great ring.
Uranus and Neptune present no fes-
lures which can be made out by the tele-
scope. The spectroscope shows the
presence of a5sorbation bands indicat-
ing dense atmospheres. Most probably
they are in approximately the condition
of Saturn. To them the sun presents the
appearance of tiny disk, giving scarce
" appreciable light and heat.
Between the group just mentioned and
that nearer the sun is a belt of small
planets, 294 OF which have been discover
ed to date. These little bodies are dis
tlnct globes from ten to 800 miles in dia-
meter. The entire absence of an atmos-
phere at once precaudes the idea that
can sustain life.
The inner group Of planneis, of which
the earth is one, have many STRIKING
physical characteristics in common, and
among these neighbors of the earth, if
anywhere, we should expect to fad evil
dence of ability to sustain life. All four
are small bodies compared to- the giant
interplanets, all are solid crusts, and, so
far as determined, their times of rO,ation
on their axes are approximately the same.
The average deneity of the group is $50
compared to water), in striking contrast
to the small density of the outer group.
Mercury has the greatest, 6.s, while Mars
has the least, 4, that of the earth being
5.66.
Mercury, the planet nearest the sun,
shows some indications of an atmosphere.
Its variations of heat, on account of its
eccentric orbit, are extreme. When at
perheilon the heat and light of the sun
beat down upon it with an intensity nine
times as great as the greatest heat which
ever reaches the earth, while even at its
greatest distance heintensity of the solar
radiation is fOur t1n,as r,ra,t N, ,x,,- ,ro